Mud Nail Pendant

JBrandvik · Dec 26, 2010

The last time my farrier was out to work on our horses, he had some of these nails with him that he uses to shoe some of his customers' draft horses feet.

He said they were European mud nails and were supposed to improve wet weather traction. I had never seen this type of nail before, but right away, I saw the potential.

Anyway, I snagged some to use to cast some silver replicas for pendants. This first one was a Christmas present my wife. I soldered on a bale, put 8 little diamonds around the head and engraved it.

Best,
Jim

Hora · Dec 26, 2010

Great idea and well done!

filbertius · Dec 26, 2010

(...if I can say it before anyone else does...) - You really nailed that one, Jim! Looks really nice.
Gary

Haraga.com · Dec 26, 2010

Nice. I used to put those on my horse to run on the grass at Pendleton.

eastslope · Dec 26, 2010

Cool. Many people run those up here on the ice during winter and early calving. We also braze carbide crystals on to the heel and toe shoes to help with ice. Thanks for showing!

bronc · Dec 26, 2010

Well done Jim. Very cool.

Stewart

Peter E · Dec 27, 2010

COOL Jim! That looks good.

Interesting...a friend is putting a nice hardwood floor in an new addition. He is using decorative nails that have heads shaped very similar.

Weldon47 · Dec 27, 2010

Jim,

Looks like you "Nailed" it!!

Weldon

Zhyyra · Dec 27, 2010

Look neat! Well done. Humble became beautiful.

JBrandvik · Dec 27, 2010

Thanks everyone. I appreciate the kind words. These little jewelry jobs are an enjoyable break for me from the steel engraving I ususally do.

eastslope said:
Cool. Many people run those up here on the ice during winter and early calving. We also braze carbide crystals on to the heel and toe shoes to help with ice. Thanks for showing!

I guess that explains why I haven't seen this type of nail before. Not much ice in this part of the world. I have seen farriers weld carbide onto draft horse shoes mostly for road work to give better traction and to keep them from wearing out too quick. I had to grind off some of these carbide welds for a job on a Clydesdale shoe recently... wore out 2 grinding wheels before I was done. Not fun!

Thanks again,

John B. · Dec 27, 2010

Another neat idea from you, Jim.
We used to use nails like that in England when the race horses only got uphill trotting excercise on the icy winter roads. We called them stud nails. Our smith had a special punch he made to set them. Knee boots and studs sure helped to cut down busted knees for the nags.
We sometimes used them on our steeplchase jumping horses when the turf was pretty frozen. And I can tell you that you remember it when they fall and step on you.

Best.

Arnaud Van Tilburgh · Dec 27, 2010

nice, remembers me the 70 ties we made pendants like this, not engraved but by bending them and putting them together with silver wire.

I don't have any photo of it but we sold a lot of them.

thanks reminding me this, arnaud

JBrandvik · Dec 27, 2010

John B. said:
We sometimes used them on our steeplchase jumping horses when the turf was pretty frozen. And I can tell you that you remember it when they fall and step on you.

Best.

I wondered if a genuine European horseman would chime in! Good to hear from you. I have been stepped on plenty of times by goofy horses. Thankfully they weren't wearing these nails, otherwise I doubt I'd still be nearly this pretty! The worst horse-scar I carry is from a big, goofy chestnut thoroughbred I was foolish enough to turn my back on. She picked me up by my belt and back-flesh and dropped me square on my face. I still have her teeth marks on my lilly white love handles!

Mike Fennell · Dec 27, 2010

Another great idea, Jim.
---------

I remember talking my dad out of shooting my horse after it went after my little brother. They can be unpredictable. The horses, I mean.

Mike Fennell

Peter_M · Dec 27, 2010

That looks nice Jim and great idea.

You might try bending the nail to form the bail, might look quite nice also instead of soldering one on.

We do use them nails up here or carbide or corks depending how slippery/icy it gets.

Peter

John B. · Dec 28, 2010

JBrandvik said:
The worst horse-scar I carry is from a big, goofy chestnut thoroughbred I was foolish enough to turn my back on. She picked me up by my belt and back-flesh and dropped me square on my face. I still have her teeth marks on my lilly white love handles!

Bet that smarted, Jim.
Thoroughbreds can be very "mouthy" can't they.

Best.

Mud Nail Pendant

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